Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds
----------------------------------------------------
'Your mom's coming today handsome.' Penelope whispered tiredly as she woke up and saw Derek still in the chair next to her bed. Derek looked at her and swore under his breath. 'I remembered but I knew you haven't, you aren't turning your mom away, I'll be fine in here on my own.'
'You are not having a single minute on your own in here.' Derek said as he sat on the bed, placing a hand either side of her so his body language was open and readable. 'We've done pretty good so far to make sure that doesn't happen so we are not starting now.'
'I get that but I'm not going anywhere.' She said and he shook his head. 'Well if you refuse to leave me properly, at least get one of the guys to do it, let your mom know where her son is, maybe she can come by and drag your behind home for a proper bed.'
'You like my behind.'
'That I do... and I get to watch it all the more lately.' She replied as she came out of her sleepy state and more into alert mode.
'Penelope Garcia have you been checking me out?'
'Well.' She bit her lip. 'It's a pretty good bum... I shall lap up its goodness.' She said clearer than before and he chuckled at her. 'I'm quite hungry.' She said to him and saw his face twist with an assortment of emotion, the main one being excitement. 'What?' She asked innocently.
'You wanting foods got to be a good thing.' He said and kissed her forehead. 'I'm going to go get a nurse, lets feed that hunger and then I'll call Hotch, if he brings my mum here I'll swap with him.'
'You learn fast oh handsome one.'
'I know I'll get punished otherwise.' She laughed at him and watched him leave. 'We'll try and get your own pyjamas today as well.' He told her from the doorway/
'Just go!' She told him and he knew she agreed, she watched, as promised, as he left the room and then as he came back in moments later. 'Everything okay?'
'Yeah... Hotch is on it baby girl, so you are stuck with me for a bit.' She smirked at him and then used her eyes to suss him out. 'I'm not ready to leave you, okay?' He saw her eyes water at that declaration. 'I've abandoned you for too long now, this is where I feel at home right now, with you.' He kissed her forehead again and then put his with hers. 'You hear me?' She nodded silently.
'I think we need a Q&A session later.' Penelope quipped at him as he sat back upright; he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. 'It might help us... you know reconnect.'
'Oh we have Pen...' Derek told her. 'We all have majorly and its because of you but I think a little session like that could well help us.' He then looked at his watch and then up as the nurse came in with food for Penelope.
'Knock knock.' Hotch said, a little over an hour later, at the open door as he watched Derek entertaining Penelope, a smile scrawled over Penelope's face as she laughed incessantly at him. 'Seems we're breaking up a party here.'
'Come in boss man and switched... handsome it's your time to go get some rest.'
'Pen...' He breathed out in a sigh.
'Go...' She told him. 'I don't have the strength to argue with you on this so just listen to me, I'm not going anywhere.'
'You promise?'
'I'd like to see you try and get me up.' She quipped at him and saw movement at the door, she looked at the woman and smiled. 'I'm guessing you're Mrs Morgan.'
'Call me Fran really.'
'Well Fran will you please get your son back to his so he can rest up please.' Penelope said with an effortless smile, she looked back at Derek. 'Look at me Derek... where am I going?'
'Nowhere.'
'Exactly... I'll be here when I get back.'
'Fine and then you are getting a proper introduction with my mom.' Penelope nodded at him with understanding. 'Right baby girl you get some rest too.'
'Go Morgan, if need be I'll bully her into resting.' Hotch said putting his hand on Derek's shoulder. 'Go...' He said and Derek finally kissed Penelope before leaving, coming back for a second kiss and then leaving completely. 'You've definitely done a good job at showing us what's happened.' Hotch said as he took a seat.
'Hmm.' Penelope agreed wordlessly. 'I want to thank you.'
'For what?'
'Making me tell you all, I realised I can't do this alone, it's too scary.'
'Well, you have us all, and we are more connected now, I mean Rossi and Reid have taken the girls out for lunch and then the girls are sticking around this afternoon to 'watch' over you.'
'Derek's not going to like that.'
'Well... it won't be forever, I'm sure we can drag him off with his mom for a bit.' Hotch said determined. 'You want visitors?'
'If they're good visitors.' Penelope said knowing he was on about the team. 'That wasn't much of a hello I gave to Derek's mom.'
'Penelope you don't need to please everyone, not at the moment we all realise that.'
'I get that I do, but effectively her son's fallen in love with someone that's dying slowly.' She saw Hotch begin to object. 'Don't deter me from that you know it as much as I do.' She told him and he knew it was the truth. 'I mean look at me, I don't have a life anymore, I'm trapped in a hospital bed while I wait on a stranger to step in and save my life.'
---------------------
'So that's Penelope is it?' Fran asked her son as they waited on their food to be served. 'The infamous baby girl?'
'Yeah.' Derek said sadly, not sure for how much longer it could say that if no donor was found.
'What's wrong with her?' Fran asked and mentally kicked herself. 'Sorry, I shouldn't pry into her private life.'
'She's got kidney failure.' Derek responded, ignoring his mom's apology. 'She kept it a secret for 5 months until Hotch made her tell us last week.'
'She kept that from you all?'
'Since Hotch got attacked by Foyet we all kind of, I don't know, got involved in our work more, withdrew from everyone.' Fran nodded but didn't say a word. 'I didn't know she broke up with her partner, I kept Beth out of my work life, the team all found out by accident. We didn't know Reid was going with a girl, or that Hotch and Emily were making a go of it. We just forgot about one another.'
'And now?'
'We realise how important everyone is to us... and Pen in particular but now we feel like she's slipping away from us.'
'Is there nothing they can do?'
'She wasn't in hospital permanently, she's been having dialysis every other day, I made her move in with me because she was struggling on her own...'
'And you love her.'
Derek laughed embarrassed as his mom was spot on. 'That too, I went with her to 2 sessions of it, but then on Friday, it was her last day at work and JJ found her collapsed on the floor of her office and rushed her in and now she's nearly in complete kidney failure. This is everything they can do for now.'
'What are her chances?'
'Slim... there's no donor match so far which means she's going to continue to get worse.'
'Have you lot been tested?'
'Tested?'
'To give up a kidney.'
'Mom... you are an utter genius!' Derek said forgetting about the food and taking his mom back to the hospital.
